Soldiers need to have good quality earplugs to protect their ears from damage because constantly listening to bullets being fired and bombs going off isn’t exactly what our ears were made for. However, they can’t just block out all noise, what if their commander is shouting orders at them or if an enemy is sneaking up on them? Surely there must be a better way to manage all of this. There certainly is, the United States Army has gradually been inducting the Tactical Communication and Protective System smart earplugs system into service.
These smart earplugs are rather smart. They are linked up to smartphones and they are then capable of softening loud noises and amplifying quiet ones. So soldiers can continue to hear the commander’s orders even though bullets and bombs are going off in the vicinity.
The TCAPS system is quite flexible, in that it can already link up to a solider’s existing communications and it also happens to support hearing aids. However, the system hasn’t quite been rolled out to everybody just yet.
So far, only 20,000 of these earplugs have been rolled out in the field. It might come down to finances in the end since the fact is that the TCAPS smart earplugs cost $2,000 each, so it’s likely that not all soldiers in the infantry will be equipped with this gadget.